How E-Cargo Bikes Can Make a Difference

Fun, functional, and loaded with the latest e-bike tech, we’re thrilled to have the Wonderwagen and Cargowagen in our line-up.

So why has a brand known for high performance race bikes decided to enter the race for more sustainable urban mobility, you might ask? Well, this isn’t actually entirely new ground for us. Let us take a moment to explain why.

Why did Cannondale develop its e-cargo bikes?

Put simply, we created these bikes for the same reason we create all our bikes: because we believe we can make better products that make fellow cyclists’ lives better.

Better how? Well, first of all, using bicycles more in daily life is better for all concerned. Aside from the mental and physical benefits, the simple act of using a bike (versus a car) to perform daily tasks has an immediate impact on reducing pollution and traffic congestion.

As PeopleForBikes put it: “When you ride a bike to work, school, see friends and family, pick up groceries or anything in between, you’re helping combat climate change — every mile counts. Start small! Just one ride at a time. Replace just a couple trips each week, and soon you’ll see just how easy it is to get out of your car and onto two wheels, having fun, getting outside and helping create a healthier planet along the way.”

We appreciate that mitigating the detrimental effects of human activity is more complex than that, especially in the manufacturing and recycling of e-bikes in particular. But we’re doing what we can with the resources we have.

How do e-cargo bikes make life easier?

Our electric cargo bikes remove many of the barriers associated with using a bike on a daily basis. Both the Wonderwagen and Cargowagen are:

Easy to pedal – You don’t need to be a Tour de France rider to cover great distances every day. Our bikes are aided by the most advanced, durable, and reliable e-bike drive systems from Bosch, a world leader in this field.

Easy to carry anything – From kids to kitchen supplies, the smart features and suite of available accessories make our e-cargo bikes incredibly versatile and ready to haul anything from A to B to Z in style.

Easy to maintain – All our bikes come with a lifetime guarantee, use readily available spare parts, and are backed up by the knowledge and service of a professional dealer network. Come rain or shine, our bikes are ready for all conditions.

Easy to maneuver – Great ride quality and superb handling is baked into every Cannondale. DNA from decades of race-winning machines has been channeled into e-cargo designs that feel smooth, stable, and confident to ride.

Easy to park – Electric cargo bikes make life cheaper and more convenient for riders versus car users. If more people used bikes, car parking needs would be reduced, meaning fewer cars on the road and in our parking lots.

All in, we think it’s easy to understand why we nickname our city and cargo e-bikes our “Go Easy” range.

These are very different from the Cannondales I know. Has Cannondale ever made products like this before?

We have! In fact, our first-ever wheeled product was not actually a bike, but a bright yellow, kid-toting bicycle trailer.

The early 1970s was a time of increasing environmental awareness, and the first Earth Day helped elevate sustainability action to a mass scale and coherence. Amidst this backdrop, our curiously-named “Bugger” bicycle trailer was born in 1972, offering a fresh alternative for families making more conscientious choices about their modes of transportation.

You can get a glimpse of it in this video:

Ruggedly engineered, ingeniously practical, and robustly safer than what had come before, the Bugger proved an instant success and launched Cannondale on the journey that’s brought you here today.

Old is the new new, as they say. So, in many ways, we’re right back where we started… just with a lot more knowledge, experience, and technology picked up along the way.

So what’s next for electric bikes?

Electric city and cargo bikes are an ultramodern evolution of the humble bicycle – an evolution that has the power to change our mobility and transportation habits on a global scale.

Time will tell how much positive impact they could have. But initial studies in the USA already suggest that if only 15% of car trips were made by electric bicycle instead, then transportation-related carbon emissions could drop by as much as 12%.*

But what about the sustainability of manufacturing the bike itself? While there is no simple answer to what is a very complex question, we are taking steps to minimize environmental impact in many areas of our business.

For example, our Dutch assembly facility runs 100% on green electricity. In fact, the solar panels on the roof generate over twice as much as is used, which we are giving back to the national grid each year. We’ve eliminated all plastic packaging when shipping bikes out from there too. And thanks to the Dutch cycling infrastructure, over 70% of our colleagues who work at the facility biked to work last year.

Speaking of which, we’re also a longtime partner of PeopleForBikes, the US-based organisation who lobbies government departments in transportation, planning and sustainability to embrace bicycles as the cleaner, more sustainable alternative (versus cars) for short journeys and commutes.

Conclusion:

When you realize the fact that riding a new electric bicycle about 10 miles per week is estimated to offset its carbon footprint from manufacturing, and we start to get an even more compelling argument for embracing the benefits of this new technology on a larger scale.

Electric bikes are one of the most efficient and cleanest* ways to travel. We believe that by empowering people with innovative, high quality, and performance-orientated machines, we can all change things for the better, one pedal stroke at a time. Come ride with us.

*Source: PeopleForBikes
Private vehicle: 0.96 pounds/mile
Bus: 0.64 pounds/mile
Bike: 0.03 pounds/mile
Electric bicycle: 0.02 pounds/mile